4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 2, 1995 USE firtrbigan Iftlu 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JASON LICHTSTEIN JASON'S LYRIC The Marines and Hershey's Kisses- Coler is unqe MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMES NASH Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. Sounds in the nigt 'U' should tighten security near fire alarms L magine being abruptly awakened- not nce but twice in one night - by a loud and intrusive noise. This unsettling scenario is very real for residents of South Quad, who have lived through it twice this semester alone. And the problem is not limited to South Quad. The rash of fire alarms in resi- dence halls has extended far beyond the point of childish pranks - it is serious and it is dangerous. Unfortunately, the University's response to these false alarms has been both inadequate and misguided. The University, in its attempt to stop stu- dents from remaining in their rooms during an alarm, has burdened resident advisors with added responsibilities. Currently, upon the sounding of a fire alarm, RAs must knock on every door and collectively tell their residents to evacuate. However, the Housing Division recently decided that, with every fire alarm, RAs must enter each room on their hall and, if necessary, remove students from the building. University officials apparently have decided to accept incessant false alarms in the dorms as inevitable. In accepting the alarms, the Uni- versity has failed to get at the root of the problem. When students leave their homes for col- lege, they take on much of the responsibility for their own lives. The University is neither their mother nor their father - it should not be acting as if it were. This is, put simply, an inappropriate solution to the wrong problem. The University should be approaching this matter from a completely different per- spective. It must take preventive measures that increase the likelihood of offenders be- ing caught. There is a wide range of possible solutions to this problem but the University has attempted few of them. First, all resi- dence hall fire alarms should be encased in glass. This would make would-be violators think twice before maliciously setting off the alarm. Another possible solution to the prob- lem would be to install security cameras near the fire alarms - or, at least, near those that are most often sounded. This measure would change this ridiculously childish act from one with little chance of disclosure to one with a great chance of detection. Further- more, the University could install an indel- ible ink spray in every fire alarm. These devices would spray an ink invisible to the naked eye on the person who sets off the alarm. If necessary, a machine would iden- tify the person responsible. Although the University is no longer turn- ing a blind eye to the problem, it must face the issue directly rather than fall back on its reflex of behaving like a "benevolent" par- ent. And perhaps students will be able to sleep through the night. This week's columnar focus is a feature story of sorts, and we begin with a little quiz: Which eminently popular University lecturer and historian has done the follow- ing in his life? A. As a rite of passage into the greater Ann Arbor community, this academic advi- ser purchased his own pair of Birkenstock sandals. B. Served as an officer in the elite Army Special Forces in Vietnam. C. Graduated from West Point Acad- emy. D. Is proud to say that he keeps a cup of delectable Hershey's Kisses on his desk in 2011 Angell Hall. Strangely enough, his cup always seems to be empty. E. Hasn't exactly finished his Ph.D. dis- sertation at the University, and has stored in his basement hundreds of pages of notes and ,documents to prove it. Like Nick (William Hurt's character) from The Big Chill, he just, well, moved on. Instead of advising the psychiatric ally-inclines, our guy advises similarly confused students. The answer: the one and only ... Tom Collier. Mr. Collier is a man with a long- assembled history of military service - a man, who when I first inquired about writ- ing this piece, described my proposal as "madness." These days, Collier is the instructor of two absolutely essential University courses: History of the Vietnam War and 20th Cen- tury American Wars. His courses have the admirable reputation of being fair, honest, accurate, widely educational and right to the point. Save that book about Vietnamese peasant life he had us read in History 211, I have almost never been exposed to so much new information -stuff they sure don't tell ya about in Noot-country or at Palm Beach Gardens Community High School, an insti- tution well south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Collier, born in our nation's capital, grew up on military bases around the world with his brothers, sisters and a certain Marine brat who also doubled as his father. Unlike many a Beltway politico, Collier does not shrink from telling the truth, nor from cracking a few widely held myths that have persisted in our post-Vietnam era -namely that a full- scale ground invasion of North Vietnam would have made any sort of difference in the outcome in this bloody conflict, which was basically a civil war. Collier finished his prestigious military career, after 20 years of dedicated service, as a lieutenant colonel. He saw military action on the ground in the Central High- lands of Vietnam, in both the Special Forces and the 1st Cavalry as an infantry and opera- tions field officer. Collier was in country for about a decade - from 1962 until 1972- and much of his mission was to supply the Montegnard tribe along the Cambodian border with supplies, training, weaponry, and of course, ideological persuasion to join forces with the boys from ARVN. After 'Nam, Collier continued his academic pur suits into the study of history and war. 14 received two master's degrees -- one in history, and one in international relations, from those Cameron crazies at Duke Uni- versity. Collier then taught at West Point for three years, and soon afterward ventured to A-squared in 1978 to enter into the history doctoral program. Since that day, he has never left our humbled surroundings. I think it's safe to say that he likes it here. In 1981g Collier taught his first course - History of the Second World War. For a while, Collier also lectured at Eastern Michigan Univer- sity over in Ypsi, but now he spends half of his time advising needy undergrads, and half of his days instructing LSA concentra- tors. Collier seems to be about as comfort- able and as content as a puppy ctog. Let me leave you with this last note. I, like hundreds of other students who havd been fortunate enough to sit in one of Tom Collier's lectures and listen to his voice, to witness his modesty and essential sureness, am sure glad that you're here-Tom Collier is what college is supposed to be about. -Lichtstein is an LSA senior; disparag- ing comments about his column should be forwarded to Jason.S.Lichtstein @um.cc.umich.edu. "Jason's Lyric "is also looking for material on what it means to b a teen-alger in America for next week. JIM~ LASSER ~45J5e 9f ,weNa ,s'n SHARP AS TOAST - r Baseless decision Congress shouldn't hesitate to close bases .- NOTABLE QUOTABLE "He signs off on everything because they're his words. He has a particular style and language all of his ow. -Associate Vice President for University Relations Lisa Baker, pn President James°J. Duderstadt H n 1988, the first of three commissions was initiated to investigate the possibility of closing unneeded military bases. Since then, the numberof U.S. defense installations world- wide has shrunk by 20 percent. In accordance with these plans, 1995 is supposed to see the largest number of closings. However, the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense William Perry have been recently backpedaling from those plans. They say that due to budget constraints, the military will scale back the number of bases it will close this year. This action would be misguided. While the issue is extremely complicated, Perry should stick to the schedule and begin closing the bases that are slated for deactivation this year, even if it means Congress footing the bill. Closing a major military base is an ex- tremely expensive four- to five-year process. With leaner defense budgets, fiscal resources are spread thin, especially by the high num- ber of military missions this year. The U.S. military had extensive operations in Haiti, Somalia, Rwanda and Kuwait among other U.N. roles. The funding for these operations comes out of the defense budget and the large amount of activity means that other areas in the military have been crunched. The military's concern about not having the nec- essary funds to complete the closings is le- gitimate. It will cost about $15 billion to close the designated 70 bases. However, the long-term gains will be sub- stantial. At the end of the decade, if all bases planned for closure were completely closed, there would be a savings of at least $4 billion a year. Such a short-term investment would pay for itself after four years. Also, with the national economy doing well and unemploy- ment at record lows, the impact of closing bases will be less difficult for local economies. Since it is inevitable that bases will eventually be closed, there will hardly be a better time to reorient local economies from military depen- dence to self-sufficiency. There are other consequences of not com- pleting the base closings. The Pentagon has planned its future military budgets in anticipa- tion of not having to pay for base operations of those on the closure list. If they are still open, the military will face an even larger budget shortfall than it has today. Delaying closings will impose added costs on taxpayers in the future. The New York Times quoted an anony- mous Pentagon official assaying, "We're down to the tough choices, and the question of how much money we have forclosing and cleanup." Another was quoted as saying, "In a time when our budget is under considerable pressure, we are constrained by the up-front costs of clos- ing." If funding is the main issue, then Con- gress should put up the money. Spending now to close the bases agreed upon in the past will reap benefits for the future. Closing bases will provide real gains in the coming years. Secretary of Defense Perry and the Pentagon should stick to their plans and shut down all the unnecessary military bases they have agreed upon closing. LETTERS . . . . . . Zionist caucus opposes force in Middle East To the Daily: This is a response to Aryeh Caroline's letter to the editor of Monday, Jan. 30 ("Daily's bias revealed in Israel article"). In it, Mr. Caroline attacks the Progres- sive Zionist Caucus (PZC), and a group we have engaged in a dia- logue with, the Palestine Soli- darity Committee (PSC). We felt it necessary to respond to a few of his points. Firstly, Caroline's claim that "(PZC and PSC) seem to share a single opinion of the bombings ... (it) is of minor sig- nificance and a reasonable price to pay."At no point has PZC ever condoned terrorism or violence. This event was a tragedy, noth- ing less. Maybe we felt this view to be obvious, and were not ac- tive enough in presenting it, but we in no way support any form of terrorism, ever. Secondly, Caroline's com- ment that our groups engage in a monologue and not a dialogue does not do justice to our activi- ties. I have never seen Caroline at one of our meetings, so am cu- rious how he came to this con- clusion. Furthermore, we are not the same group; there is in fact much dissent within PZC itself. We feel that dialogue is impor- tant to gain a better understand- ing of all sides in the conflict, ilt -17Aa n nn ' ton frump tofr this past October, the event was marked by the speaking of an Israeli consulate member from Chicago. We were not interested in being a part of an event which included political ideals not in line with our own. You cannot translate this into support of the killings, and we feel it irrespon- sible that any such linkage be attempted. PZC feels that the only viable option for the future of the Middle East is two states for two peoples. We will continue to work toward these goals. As Caroline pointed out, there has been violence in the region for a long time, and attaining peace is also going to be a lengthy process. Though not condoning violence, we should not allow it to be a justification for stopping the peace process. Michael Newman SNRE junior Chair, Progressive Zionist Caucus BSU ignores real racism To the Daily: On MLK Day two strategies were presented for the way for- ward for Black students and workers at the University. There were two demonstrations. There were two groups of people. One group was the Black Student Union (BSU) leadership; the nth~r (yrn n ne ct0 Pr*)thetl... have a symbolic, "commemo- rative" march. A march whose sole significance was a sym- bolic posture instead of a march and rally conceived from the standpoint of actually fighting racism. The workers and NWROC chose to march on and picket the Dental School, call- ing for the workers' reinstate- ment, for formation of a worker/ student alliance to fight racism and for building a new, militant, integrated civil rights move- ment. We believe that eulogiz- ing Martin Luther King while avoiding the struggle against the racism of today is despicable hypocrisy. NWROC and the workers approached the BSU leaders re- peatedly on MLK Day with ap- peals for a united front around the workers' case. NWROC was not in the planning meetings for the MLK Day events, but struggle demands that plans be changed. However, the BSU leaders were unwilling to join with us in con- fronting the racism of today at the University. Doing that would have meant breaking with their policy of symbolic posturing and coming into conflict with both the source of their funding and their aspi- rations for managerial and ad- ministrative careers. As part of their no-fight plan, despite initially agreeing to our speaking they refused to let NWROC and the Dental School worke~rs sneak.and did everv- spoke and about 150 of the re- maining 250 people at the Diag rally responded to Dawn's ap- peal to march on and picket the Dental School. Kofi Malik Boone's letter ("Article downplays Black role in organizing MLK Day," yl/ 95) says that "the issue of t' firing of the three Dental School workers was addressed by desig- nated speakers at the rally." The truth is that the second to last speaker on the program made one passing reference to the workers. Boone's letter does not mention that the firing of the workers was racist or ev that these three union worker are Black. Nor does the letter mention racism at the Univer- sity, or even use the word "rac- ism." The sole intention of Boone's letter is to cover the BSU leadership's bureaucratic behavior and their scandalous attempt to derail this strugo against racism at the Univer- sity. We call on the BSU leaaers to change their shameful policy of capitulation to racism at'the University. Joining the campaign for the reinstatement of Atkins, Mitchell and Isabell would an important start. Helping build the demonstrations,: the worker/student tribunal and a worker/student alliance to fight racism would be another im- nortant step. State legislators 52nd district (North Campus) Rep. Mary Schroer (D) 992 Olds Plaza Building Lansing, MI 48909 (517) 373-1792 53rd district (Central Campus) Rep. Liz Brater (D) 412 Roosevelt Building Lansing, MI 48909 (517) 373-2577 18th district (Washtenaw County) Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith (D) 510 Farnum Building